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Does Travel Broaden The Mind?
One often hears it said that travel broadens themind: if you stay in your own country the whole time, your ideas remain narrow; whereas if you travelabroad you see new customs, eat new foods, do newthings, and come back home with a broader mind.
But does this always — or even usually — happen? An acquaintance2 of mine who lives in England andhad never been outside it until last summer, decided to go over3 to France for a trip. When hereturned, I asked him how he liked it."Terrible, "was his answer." I couldn"t get a nice cup of teaanywhere . 4 Thank goodness I"m back. "I asked him whether he hadn"t had any good foodwhile he was there ."Oh, the dinners were all right, "he said."I found a little place where theymade quite good fish and chips. Not as good as ours, mind you5, but they were passable. Butthe breakfasts were terrible: no bacon or kippers. I had fried eggs and chips, but it was quite a6 business getting them to make them. They expected me to eat rolls. And when I asked formarmalade , they brought strawberry jam. And do you know, they insisted that it wasmarmalade? The trouble is they don"t know English. "
I thought it useless to explain that we borrowed the word‘marmalade "from French, and that itmeans, in that language, any kind of jam. So I said,"But didn"t you eat any of the famousFrench food?""What? Me?"he said."Of course not! Give me good old English food every time!None of these fancy bits for me! "Obviously travel had not broadened his mind.
This does not, of course, happen only to Englishmen in France: all nationalities, in all foreigncountries, can be found judging what they see, hear, taste and smell according to their ownhabits and customs. People who are better educated and who have read a lot about foreigncountries tend to be more adaptable7 and tolerant8, but this is because their minds havealready been broadened before they start travelling. In fact, it is easier to be broad-mindedabout foreign habits and customs, if one"s acquaintance with these things is limited to booksand films. The American smiles tolerantly over the absence of central heating in most Englishhomes when he is himself comfortably seated in his armchair in his centrally heated house inChicago; the English man reads about the sanitary arrangements in a certain tropical country,and the inhabitants of the latter read about London fogs, and each side manages to bedetached and broad-minded. 9 But actual physical contact with things one is unaccustomed tois much more difficult to bear philosophically.
Perhaps the ideal would be if travel could succeed in making people tolerant of the habits andcustoms of others without abandoning their own. The criterion for judging a foreigner couldbe: Does he try to be polite and considerate to others? Instead of: Is he like me?
阅读自测
Ⅰ. True o r False :
1. It is often said that if you travel abroad to see many new things, your mind will bebroadened.
2. The Englishman had a happy life when he travelled to France .
3. The word‘marmalade"is originally a French word, which means any kind of jam.
4. In the view of the author, people often judge things according to their own habits andcustoms.
5. The author thinks that people who are better educated and read a lot are easily to betolerant.
6. Tea , bacon, kippers, chips are all typical English food.
参考答案
Ⅰ. 1. T 2. F 3 . T 4 . T 5 . T 6 . T
参考译文
旅游新解
经常听人说旅游使人心胸开阔：如果人们一直呆在本国，思维就会很狭隘;可要是人们 到国外旅游一番，见识新的风俗，品尝新的食物，有过新的经历，回来后心胸就开阔多了。
可是事情总是……或者说通常是这样的吗?我认识一个住在英格兰的朋友。在去年 夏天之前他从没出过国，就决定去法国旅游一番。回来后，我问他感觉如何。"糟糕透 了，"他说，"哪儿都弄不到一杯好茶喝。谢天谢地，我回来了。"我问他在法国有没有品尝 什么美味佳肴。"噢，食物还不错，"他说，"我发现了一个小地方，那里的鱼和薯条做得非 常好。说真的，虽不如我们的那么美味，可还算说得过去。但是早餐太糟糕了。既没有熏 咸肉也没有腌干鱼。我吃煎蛋和薯条，可要他们去做这些食物实在是件大难事。他们希望 我能吃点面包卷。可我问他们要橘子酱(marmalade)时，他们却给我拿来草莓酱。你知道吗?他们竟还坚持说那就是橘子酱。问题在于他们不懂英语。"
其实marmalade 一词来自法语，它在法语中的意思是任何口味的果酱，但我觉得给他解释这些无济于事，所以我说："可是，你没有尝尝法国名菜吗?""什么?我?"他问，"当然没有!每次我都点美味的英式食物!可那些食物没一样能让我满意!"很显然，旅游并没有让他心胸开阔。
当然，这种事并不只是发生在身处法国的英国人身上：所有到国外去的人都是以他们 自己的习惯和风俗去评价所见所闻及所品尝的异国风味。那些受过良好教育并熟知外国国情的人更易于适应新环境并比较宽容，不过这是因为他们在旅游之前心胸就已经开阔 了。事实上，对异国的习惯和风俗的了解如果仅限于书本和电影的话，人们的心胸更易开阔。当一个美国人舒舒服服地坐在他在芝加哥的装有中央取暖设施的房间中的扶手椅里的时候，他会对英国大部分住房没有中央取暖设施报以宽容的一笑。英国人通过阅读了解 到某一热带国家的卫生设施，而这一热带国家的人也从书面上了解了伦敦的雾。双方都力图保持公正和宽容。而人们在亲身接触自己不习惯的事物时，要做到达观容忍就难多了。
也许，理想的情况应该是这样的：旅游既让人们容忍异域的习惯和风俗而又不放弃自己的传统，要是这样就好了。评价外国人的标准就可能是：看他是否礼貌待人，是否体谅别人，而不是看他是否和自己一样? 以上就是《2016年12月大学英语六级考试阅读模拟题及答案9》的全部内容。
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